I posted this over /r/StallmanWasRight and I am not sure it would be taken well at /r/Rust so here we are.
I have been getting into Rust in the last year but the licensing ecosystem of Rust crates makes me perplexed.
Today I came along this project https://github.com/uutils/coreutils that is trying to rewrite GNU coreutils in Rust and it is likely over the years projects like this one will overshadow many of the legacy GNU projects.
They are almost all made on “permissive” licenses that will give so much more power to corporations, in fact I am absolutely sure all these (big) rewrites are sponsored by corporations to escape the GNU safeguards that were built to protect users and society.
Does anyone else see this or am I just too paranoid ?
EDIT: It is not my intention to single out any specific project/team. Instead, I aim to initiate a meaningful discussion regarding the licensing choice. Rust is likely the first language since C that holds the capability to effectively replace the decades old, legacy libraries.
I don’t like it personally, I don’t contribute to projects that are designed to easily feed non-free systems. There is a lot of corporate influence both direct, but even more in people catering to companies potential of exploitation in order to maximize there and the projects value to corporate interests.
It’s common for these people to just not see these as tools that “normal” people need, but as tools for companies that admins, and devs use. This is in stark contrast as to when gnu utils were deved